Sometimes, a milestone comes and goes with very little notice. That’s what happened a couple of weeks ago when we passed the 100 days mark before the beginning of the Olympic Games this summer.
I saw a brief mention of this news on Twitter or Facebook, but just went about my business. A few days later, I started to realize I should have paid more attention.
One hundred days until I can pretty much fill 24 hours with sports, both popular and obscure. Of course, I can kind of pull that off now with all the cable channels and online options available, but that’s not as much fun as the Olympics.
I think I fall into that age bracket which really has a special connection to the Olympics. I was 11 when the U.S. hockey team pulled off the Miracle on Ice in the winter of 1980. The Lake Placid Games also had Eric Heiden’s speedskating domination.
Back then, we didn’t care if the events took place during the day and ran on TV in the evening. Complaints about “spoilers” didn’t rank up there with systematic torture of innocent people in our culture for some people. Sure, some people knew we beat the Russians before ABC showed the game, but no one knew any better.
Then, right as we came off that high, we found out the U.S. would boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow. For a kid who would turn 12 that summer, it just made no sense. I could have totally walked away from the Olympics, but a fortuitous event happened.
The Summer Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984, and I got to go. Two of my brothers and I went out there for about a week. We initially bought tickets for wrestling, but also got a chance to see baseball, field hockey and soccer.
Those Olympics also suffered from a boycott by the Soviet bloc, but this didn’t matter to my teenage self because the U.S. had the chance to win all kinds of medals, some of them in person. I was hooked.
I don’t get into the Winter Olympics as much as I do the Summer Games (well, except for my quadrennial fascination with curling) so I only get to feel this excitement every four years.
Along with the 100-day milestone, I also found out that every event would stream live on the Internet, something which excited me way too much.
I watch the Olympics for the sports, not the feature stories. I understand why broadcasters like NBC spend enormous amounts of time creating a narrative and delaying coverage to maximize viewers. I just want them to present the games the way I want to see them.
That’s why I was one of the few people who really loved the “Triple Play” pay-per-view channels offered in 1992. Others can see the story of how some athlete grew up in a rough neighborhood. I want to see every wrestling match, the preliminaries of the archery competition and random team handball matches when I’m getting ready for work.
Less than 100 days to go. I can’t wait.